Quotes About Creativity

began to wonder whether originality really shows that great writers are gods, each of them reigning over a kingdom which is his alone, whether misleading appearances might not play a role in this, and whether the differences between their books might not be the result of hard work, rather than the expression of a radical difference in essence between distinct personalities.

That art had become a poor and pitiable thing. It was no longer inhabited by a deep-rooted soul.

Chartres Cathedral' after Corot, of the 'Fountains of Saint-Cloud' after Hubert Robert, and of 'Vesuvius' after Turner,

Those who produce works of genius are not those who spend their days in the most refined company, whose conversation is the most brilliant, or whose culture is the broadest; they are those who have the ability to stop living for themselves and make a mirror of their personality, so that their lives, however nondescript they may be socially, or even in a way intellectually, are reflected in it. For genius lies in reflective power, and not in the intrinsic quality of the scene reflected.

I realised that the passing of time does not necessarily bring about progress in the arts.

La vraie vie, [...] c'est la littérature.

opted in favour of simplicity, the arts, and magnanimity

in the state of mind in which we "observe" we are a long way below the level to which we rise when we create.

This book of mine has not been manufactured: it has been garnered.

there is always less egoism in pure imagination than in recollection;

as great poets do when the tyranny of rhyme forces them into the discovery of their finest lines.

Nas?l ki baz? yarat?klar, tabiat?n üretmekten vazgeçti?i bir canl? türünün son örnekleriyse, acaba –dil, kelimeler, dü?üncelerin çözümlenmesi icat edilmemi? olsa–ruhlar aras?nda mevcut olabilecek ileti?imin yegâne örne?i de müzik mi diye dü?ünüyordum. Müzik, devam? gelmemi? bir olas?l?k gibidir; insanl?k ba?ka yollara, konu?ma ve yaz? diline sapm??t?r.

Authentic art does not proclaim itself for it is achieved in silence.

Art extracted from the most familiar reality does indeed exist and its domain is perhaps the largest of any.

The impression is for the writer what experiment is for the scientist, with the difference that in the scientist the work of the intelligence precedes the experiment and in the writer it comes after the impression.

Et elle m'a répondu textuellement : « Il faut toujours dire une chose comme si on était en train de la composer soi-même. » Si vous y réfléchissez c'est monumental, cette réponse !

She would make me tell her, too, all about the poems that I meant to compose. And these dreams reminded me that, since I wished, some day, to become a writer, it was high time to decide what sort of books I was going to write.

Si j'avais vos dispositions, je crois bien que j'écrirais du matin au soir

The kind of plagiarism which it is most difficult for any human individual to avoid (and even for whole nations, who persist in reproducing their faults and aggravate them in so doing) is self-plagiarism.

But the imagination goes beyond the reality in supposition.

You have a soul in you of rare quality, an artist's nature; never let it starve for lack of what it needs.

tout cela qui prend forme et solidité, est sorti, ville et jardins, de ma tasse de thé.

And thinking again of the sameness of Vinteuil's works, I explained to Albertine that the great men of letters have never created more than a single work, or rather have never done more than refract through various media an identical beauty which they bring into the world.

Victor Hugo, ?öyle der: Çimenler uzamal?, çocuklar ölmeli mutlaka. Ben diyorum ki, sanat?n ac?mas?z yasas? uyar?nca, insanlar?n, kendimizin, ?st?rab?n her türünü tatt?ktan sonra ölmesi gerekir ki, unutu?un de?il, ebedî hayat?n çimleri, verimli eserlerin gür otlar? uzas?n, gelecek nesiller ne?e içinde, alt?nda uyuyanlara ald?rmadan gelip "k?rda yemek"lerini yiyebilsinler.